EXP Review has managed to get their hands on a set of AMD slides containing information on one of the company’s upcoming processor lines. The Llano successor, known as Trinity, is a new APU due out later this year that is said to bring increases in performance thanks to several architectural enhancements.
A Trinity APU die sitting next to a USB flash drive
Llano is AMD’s currently available Accelerated Processing Unit, or APU. The chips combine updated “Stars” mobile Phenom II CPU cores and Radeon 6000 series graphics cores into a single package. Further, the APUs contain a PCI-E 2.0 controller, integrated memory controller, and UVD3 hardware video decoding units. Some models also support AMD’s Turbo Core and Hybrid Graphics Technology which allow them to automatically boost CPU clockspeeds when lower GPU usage leaves TDP headroom, and to pair with a discrete Radeon HD 6450, 6570, or 6670 GPU in a Crossfire-like configuration. Built on a 32nm silicon on insulator (SOI) manufacturing process by GlobalFoundries, the APUs employ 1.45 billion transistors and have a die size of 228mm2 for the desktop versions. Desktop parts have TDPs of 65 watts or 100 watts depending on the particular chip and connect to the motherboards using the FM1 socket (which was a new socket for AMD, it has 905 contacts). There are both desktop and mobile Llano parts, though they are essentially the same chips. The mobile parts are scaled down desktop Llano chips that run at lower clockspeeds, top out DDR3 support at 1600MHz (versus DDR3 1866MHz on the desktop parts), have lower TDPs of either 35W or 45W, and use a slightly different socket (FS1).
In our review, and what many other users noted, is that Llano’s CPU performance really left something to be desired. Fortunately for AMD, the GPU portion of the chip delivered on performance and made the APU desirable for certain niches. The low power chips had a place in home theater PCs (HTPCs), cheap desktops, and even budget gaming rigs to an extent. Still, the CPU performance really held Llano back in terms of popularity and adoption among enthusiasts.
Llano APU in action during overclocking and gaming tests.
The upcoming Trinity processors bring quite a few enhancements to the table, foremost of which is a revamped CPU part that ditches the old Phenom II processor cores in favor of updated Piledriver architecture CPU modules. The move to the Piledriver x86 cores promises an increase in IPC, leakage reduction, CAC reduction, and increased clockspeeds according to the leaked slides, but the most important change is the increased performance per clock numbers. The Trinity APUs are set to replace the A8–or performance series of–Llano APUs with quad core Trinity processors that utilize two Piledriver modules that each share 2MB cache for 4MB of total L2 cache. In that respect, Trinity will be similar to Llano in that it does not employ any L3 cache that is shared between the CPU and GPU cores. Interestingly, that may mean that using higher clocked RAM can improve performance on Trinity just as it did with Llano. If true, that would make Trinity’s improved DDR3 support–up to DDR3 2133MHz– all the better. On the GPU side of things, Trinity moves to a “Northern Islands” VLIW4 architecture with up to 384 stream processing units. Although the GPU area is physically smaller, it is said to be more efficient than the GPU cores in Llano APUs. The new GPU core is DirectX 11 and OpenCL 1.1 compliant. Also, it includes an updated hardware tessellator engine and hardware encoding unit (AMD Accelerated Video Converter).
Trinity will continue to offer 65W and 100W TDPs as well as a 35W part. The TDPs are the same as those in Llano, but AMD has managed to lower the voltages needed to run Trinity out of the box. Also, AMD is claiming the new Trinity chips will sip power at idle–as low as 1.08 watts.
Trinity also ratchets up the automatic overclocking with Turbo Core 3 support which can boost the CPU clockspeed up to 19% or the GPU clockspeed up to 20% above stock clocks. Even better, the APU is able to allocate power to either the GPU or CPU depending on which area needs the boost and how much TDP headroom the chip has when doing certain tasks. For example, AMD shows that the A10-4600M APU can downclock the GPU from the default clockspeed of 685MHz to 496MHz, allowing the x86 Piledriver cores to achieve up to a 900MHz overclock at a clockspeed of 3.2GHz. Alternatively, when the GPU is needed, it can run at 685MHz while the CPU sits at 2.3GHz. They are likely not able to push the GPU much further as any more reductions in CPU speeds would need to be much bigger than any accompanying GPU increases. And at that point, the GPU would likely become bottlenecked and the system would be starved of too much CPU power anyway.
The Trinity APUs continue to be based on GlobalFoundries’ 32nm SOI manufacturing process, but this time the chips are slightly larger with a die size of 246mm^2. Although the APU is wholly larger than Llano, they actually have fewer transistors at 1.303 billion versus the 1.45 billion in Llano. Although that may seem like a step in the wrong direction, the new CPU modules and GPU cores are much more efficient than those in Llano so it should all balance out and Trinity should come out on top despite the lower transistor count. The Trinity APUs will also feature an improved instruction set that includes AVX, AVX1.1, FMA3, AES, and F16C which should help the CPU in certain tasks.
Overall, Trinity is looking like an improved part versus Llano, especially in the CPU department. Although AMD’s numbers should be taken with more than a grain of salt, they are claiming 26% better desktop system performance as a result of the CPU overhaul. Granted, Bulldozer was not a CPU powerhouse itself when compared to the competition, but it is–at least on paper–a good design. When paired with a relatively good GPU, as is the case of Trinity, the Piledriver [architecture based] (a refined version of the Bulldozer architecture with some under-the-hood tweaks) cores should at the least not hold the GPU back, and at best make the CPU processor performance good enough to make the Trinity APU all the more desirable to an even wider range of potential buyers. Pricing of the new APUs is still up in the air, but they are set to release later this month if a certain leak is to be believed.
I think that we can expect to see an all around better chip with Trinity, though pricing will be the ultimate factor in determining how popular it is. I suspect that Intel will still carry the CPU crown, but if the price is right, AMD can sell a lot of Trinity chips to builders that only need decent CPUs to support good integrated GPU cores in systems where the GPU is more important. I am anxiously awaiting reviews of the new Trinity chips and hoping that AMD continues to have successful chips with their line of APUs.
More images of the leaked slides can be found here. Also, on a somewhat related note, it looks like many of the previous leaks and information that we reported on a while ago was correct.
Looks like this could be what
Looks like this could be what we wanted Llano to be.
Let’s hope that Intel has
Let’s hope that Intel has stopped bribing manufacturers to cap their purchases of AMD processors.
We are now a little more than one year out of the Consent Decree from the FTC, so maybe some of those exclusionary Intel contracts will expire soon.
“Still, the CPU performance
“Still, the CPU performance really held Llano back in terms of popularity and adoption among enthusiasts.”
no really… AMD held it back because they couldn’t meet demand and 32nm was delayed.
also Trinity will be socket FM2 which is physically not backwards compatible with FM1.
cant wait for Trinity ultrabooks er “ultrathins”
Ah, socket changes, gotta
Ah, socket changes, gotta love em! At least they are still hanging on to AM3 :). Yeah the supply issues did likely aslo affected adoption.
Oh great. Underclocked
Oh great. Underclocked bulldozers.
Seriously, if I don’t hear numbers like “25% better ipc!” I don’t think I will be able to care.
Hold on a moment, Global
Hold on a moment, Global Foundries definitely does HKMG (high-K metal gate) on the 32nm node.
Unless I’ve got HKMG and SOI backwards, what gives? Yield issues? Do I underestimate the amount of redesign necessary for that move?
I’m pretty sure that GF does
I’m pretty sure that GF does have the technology to do it, but maybe yield or cost to transition to it just to produce Llano wasn’t it it for them. I dunno, maybe Josh has some insight there.
Is bulldozer the only cpu
Is bulldozer the only cpu that will use AM3+ or will there be one more iteration? Some people saying that Piledriver will be both FM2 and AM3+ and some saying just FM2. What is the official story?
The new Piledriver core
The new Piledriver core design will be implemented in a redesign FX part being released towards the end of the year, to replace the current Bulldozer based parts, and will use AM3+. It wont include a GPU and based on what I’ve read, should be like for like replacement for the current Bulldozers (max ‘8’ cores, similar amounts of cache etc).
I’m fairly confident it will correct the majority of the problems with the Bulldozer chips, on paper at least it promises reduced power consumption, a small bump in IPC and increased clocks. Looking back at earlier AMD releases, they tend to do better on the 2nd iteration of a new design (e.g. the move from Phenom I to Phonom II).
Piledriver will be on
Piledriver will be on both.
Trinity (Piledriver + Radeon graphics) will be on FM2
Vishera (Piledriver, no graphics, but with L3 cache and more cores) will replace Zambezi (Bulldozer) on AM3+
Sorry, didn’t see this
Sorry, didn’t see this comment until now. Basically what Rob said. The Piledriver architecture is going to be implemented in the Trinity APU and towards the end of the year, AMD will release an AM3+ version using Piledriver architecture based CPU cores with up to 8 cores and no integrated GPU. So Piledriver will be in both FM2 and AM3+ chips.
Sweet thanks for the
Sweet thanks for the clarification. Do you think the thermals and power will be better than my 955?
Vishera should be more
Vishera should be more efficient though I dont know if it will use less power since they will be 8 cores (4 paired modules).
hi tim! essentially you keep
hi tim! essentially you keep posting “i dont know but i think so or why not ask someone else”
why bother